Lace-machine.



No. 707,436. Patented Aug..l9, I902. C. MARTIN;

LACE MACHINE.

(Application filed Nov. 17, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

Nu. 707,436. Patented Aug. l9, I902.

, C."MARTIN.

LACE MACHINE.

Application filed Nov. 17, 1900.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

waizasaasi v memivr Mg 5 f CHARLES MARTIN, OF NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND.

LACE-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 707,436, dated August 19, 1902.

Application filed November 1'7, 1900. Serial N0. 36,900. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES MARTIN, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Nottingham, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Lace- Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the Levers twist-lace machine for the purpose of producing lace similar to cushion or handmade lace as well as other lace fabrics. The said improvements enable as many breadths as desired to be manufactured without much, if any, clippingbeing required. To this end the machine is provided with means for taking up the slack of the bobbin and warp threads during the manufacture of the lace under the control of jacquard mechanism. The invention also has reference to the devices whereby these operations are effected.

Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of a Levers lace-machine with my improvement applied thereto, the rocking shafts, cams, pointbars, knocking-out levers, catch-bar links and levers, and other usual parts which are in no way altered in applying my invention being omitted for the sake of clearness. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation, broken away,of the same. Fig. 3 represents in elevation, and Fig. 4 in plan, the work-roller rack-wheel mechanism. Fig. 5 represents in elevation a portion of the bobbin-threadtension regulating mechanism. Fig. 6 is a plan of part of the same, and Fig. '7 is a longitudinal View of the gripper-combs broken away.

Suitably attached to the end standards a (and when there are intermediate standards to such standards also) are brackets or supports I), and upon the tie-bar c is pivoted one end of alever d, the other end of which carries a cam-bowl d, actuated by a cam e on the ordinary cam-shaft e. The lever d has pivoted upon it, near the cam-bowl d, a pair of clawkers f f, connected together at f Ratchets g g, having teeth for right and left hand motions, respectively, are fixed upon a spindle h, carrying a worm h, which worm actuates, by means of the worm-wheel i, the work or lace beam 1'. \Vhen the lace-beam moves in the direction of the arrow, itis winding the fabric upon itself in the ordinary way common to all lacemachines heretofore constructed; but in order that the bobbin-thread and warp-thread slack may be taken up or rewound upon the bobbin and warp beams during the manufacture of the lace without distorting the design it is necessary that the lace-beam shall have a motion in the opposite direction, so that at certain periods, depending upon the design, it shall not wind the fabric upon itself in the ordinary way, but shall leave it slack or free of tension while certain threads are being rewound upon the bobbins or beams. To enable either motion to be communicated to the lace-beam (when the design requires it) by means of the aforesaid clawkers, a spring f attached at its other end to a bracket on the frame of the machine, is arranged so that it pulls the clawkerf into its ratchet g and takes off the clawker f, while a wire or cord f which is attached to the jacquard, after passing over guide-rollers f f serves to bring the clawker f into its ratchet g and takes off the clawker f when pulled by the jacquard.

When the lace-beam t" is reversed by the action of the above mechanism, the warpbeamsj can be caused to take up slack by means of the following arrangement: The said warp-beams are carried in the usual man nor by beam-arms j; but upon the spindle or end of each beam is provided a ratchetwheel k, with which a pawl 7c engages. To each pawl If is attached a lifting cord or wire k which passes through a slay or perforated plate k and is attached to a sliding plate which is supported at its ends by brackets is in slots through which it passes and is connected in its turn with the jacquard by a cord or wire k suitably guided over pulleys or rollers carried on the frame of the machine. The plates are returned to position when the jacquard action is off by springs 70. The pawls 7c are connected to bars 70 running lengthwise of the machine, said bars being carried by and between two sliding frames 70 These frames slide in grooves or channels 7t", formed on the inner sides of the standards a, or they may be carried in any other convenient manner, according to the design and form of the machine. They are reciprocated by means of connecting-links 10 attached to a rocking fork 70 which is operated by a cam 70 upon the hand-wheel 70 at the front of the machine. By this means the pawls 70' can be thrown into or out of action by the jacquard,

so enabling the Warp-beams to be turned backward slightly, as required,

In order to take up the slack in the bobbinthreads',grippersZareemployed. These have a pivotal rocking motion and are adapted to take hold of the required bobbins and give them, a partial turn. The said grippers may be applied to every bobbin in coarse-gage machines or to every alternate or every third bobbin in fine-gage machines. The grippers have bifurcated spring ends Z, which serve when pushed forward by the mechanism hereinafter described to grip the sides of the bobbin m above the center. This action takes place when the carriages are in the comb m at the back of the machine. In some machines the gripper is preferably cut away at the fore part, as seen in Fig. 5, so as to avoid all risk of contact with the catch-bar m On the front of this bar are pointed projections or, teeth m which are adapted to enter between the bobbins and so keep the same at the exact distance apart, thus insuring the grippers entering properly between them. When the gripper is under the action of the jacquard turned upon its pivot Z to take up the slack thread, it moves the bobbin in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 5, this being the opposite direction to that in which the bobbin moves in giving 0E its thread m to form the fabric. This motion of the bobbin in a reverse direction is sufiicient to take up the slack thread which is formed above the bobbins whose threads have not been twisted into the fabric and to rewind it upon the bobbin ready for use at the next motion of the machine. Those grippers only are actuated by the jacquard which grip bobbins having slack thread above them, the remainder of the grippers passing on and off in a direction radial or approximately radial to the bobbins withoutcommunicatingany rotary motion to them. In going off the bobbins those grippers which have not been actuated by the jacquard do, in fact, slightly move upon their pivots; but this motion is not even perceptible until after the gripper is free from the bobbin and so has no influence on the yarn. The jacquard for actuating the grippers may be controlled by perforated cards ofthe usual well-known kind, the arrangement of the perforations depending on the positions where slack would be formed according to the design of lace being manufactured, or the jacquard may be worked in any other well-known manner. The gripper when turned upon its pivot occupies the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 5. Each gripper works in tricks 01 n in the carrier 91 and is prevented from coming out of the same by a bar a At each end of the carrier or at suitable positions therein are dies or projections 72 which work in slots n in plates or supports '11., carried by a barp, which is supported in any convenient manner by the end standards a, of the machine or otherwise. The bead or pivot Z is formed longitudinally in the carrier between the tricks n and n. The carrier is caused to reciprocate in the slots 01 at each revolution of thecam-shaft 6', so as to move the grippers clear of the catch-bar m when said bar is moving into the ears of the bobbin-carriages. For this purpose the carrier is adjustabl y connected by means of two or more links q, parallel to each other, (and one only of which is shown,) which are bolted in slotted bars 1", swinging from pivots 8, carried by brackets on the tie-bar c of the frame. The slotted bars 1' carry cam-bowls r actuated by cams r on the cam-shafts e and when not affected by the cam serve to draw the carriers 11 backward under the action of springs 25, connecting them with the brackets or supports b. A cord or wire a from each gripper is attached to one of aset of sliding plates 1;, similarin construction to the plates The plates v are connected by wires or cords o, extending over pulleys or rollers c ,with the jacquard and are returned to position after the action of the latter by the springs 0 A short rotary movement is communicated to a bobbin by the pullof the cord a, which is connected through the jacquard, on the one hand, and through the intervention of one of the plates a; with one of the grippers, on the other hand. Thus it will be seen that the action of the jacquard causes the gripper to turn the bobbin in the opposite direction to that in which the jacquard pulls. Those cords it which in consequence of the perforation of the card at the time passing through the jacquard are not pulled communicate no motion to the grippers connected with them. Such grippers conse quently slide off and on their bobbins without turning them, being simply reciprocated by the connecting-rod q. Each gripper is connected with the jacquard separately and may be actuated in the course of manufacturing a piece of lace at various times. The pull of the jacquard takes place at the moment when the link (1 has caused all the grippers to grip their bobbins, and consequently some bobbins are rotated while the remainder are simply gripped, this depending on the perforation of the cards passing the jacquard at the moment. Of course it is possible by suitable perforations of the card to either actuate or leave unaffected the Whole of the grippers on a given motion of the machine; but the former would probably never occur in practice.

The working of a lace-machine provided with my improvements is as follows: When there are no slack threads to be taken up in consequence of the lace design being manufactured twisting in and utilizing all the thread as drawn off the bobbins and beams or their equivalent, the operation of the machine and the various parts other than those constituting my invention (which parts are moved without producing anyefiect) are exactly the same as in the ordinary Levers or like twist-lace machines. The lace-beam turns in the usual direction to wind the finished fabric upon itself, said beam being actuated by the clawker f taking into the ratchet g at the end of the spindle h, carrying the worm by which the lace beam is turned. The clawker is raised to turn the ratchet by the cam e on the ordinary cam-shaft e, which cam lifts the bowl cl upon the end of the oscillating lever d, to which said clawker is attached, and the clawker is held for the time being in the ratchet by the spring f which connects the clawker f with a fixed support on the machine-frame. It is obvious that the lace-beam may be caused to turn through a short are in either direction, since the clawkers f and f are caused by construction to rise and fall together once at every revolution of the shafts c, and according as fis drawn into its ratchet g by the spring or f is drawn into engagement with its ratchet g by the pull of the jacquard on-f(these conditions being determined by the perforations of the card passing the jacquard at the time) so the one or other of these ratchet-wheels will be actuated. The pawls 7t appertaining to those warp-beams which in consequence of the design under manufacture have at the particular moment slack threads are pulled into their ratchets by beams of the spring which pull the plates 7c, connected with said pawls it, into such a position that the cords or wires k allow the pawls to drop into the ratchets, so that on the reciprocation of the sliding frames k the beams are turned through a small arc, corresponding approximately to the difference between the length of a slack and a taut thread in a backward or reverse direction to Wind such slack upon the beam. In the ordinary working of the machine when there is no warp slack to be taken up and in the case of such of the pawls as appertain to beams which at the particular moment have no slack thread above them the sliding frames reciprocate without influencing the warp-beams, sincethe pawls 7a are held out of the ratchets by means of the jacquard, which in consequence of the perforation of the cards at such times passing through it pulls the cords or wires 70 so as to move the plates 76 into such a position that by means of the cords 70 the pawls 71: are held out of their ratchets. In the drawings the pawls 7c are shown in gear with the ratchets It at the ends of the warpbeams 7' and would consequently on the motion of the sliding frames k in the direction of the arrow (see Fig. 1) move the beams j so as to rewind the warp-yarns upon them. This taking up of the slack automatically wherever formed during the man ufacture of a design, as well as obviating the necessity of clipping the finished fabric, allows the tension on the various threads to be more easily calculated and clothing resembling that in. pillow-lace .to be made in the design. By the term clothing is meant the close or solid-looking part of pillow and similar lace which has the appearance of cloth or closely-woven fabric.

As there is great variation in the form of the parts of twist-lace machines, it is to be understood that I do not claim or limit myself worm-spindle, a pair of clawkers for turning said wheels in opposite directions, a spring for drawing one of said clawkers into engagement with its ratchet, and jacquard mechanism for disengaging said clawkers and bringing the other one into action at the proper times, substantially as described.

3. Ina lace-machine, the combination of the warp-beams, ratchet-wheels at the ends of said beams, pawls engaging said ratchetwheels, and jacquard mechanism for controlling the engagement of said pawls, substantially as described.

4. In a lace-machine, the combination of the warp-beams,beam-arms carrying the same, ratchet-wheels on said beams, pawls engaging said ratchet-wheels, means for connecting said pawls with spring-controlled sliding plates, and jacquardmechanism for operating said sliding plates, substantially as described.

5. In a lace-machine, the combination of the bobbins, the bobbin-carriers, pivoted grippers adapted to clip the edges of said bobbins, means for reciprocating said grippers, and jacquard mechanism for causing said grippers to act on the bobbins, substantially as described.

6. In a lace-machine, the combination of the bobbins, the bobbin-carriers, a catch-bar therefor, teeth on said catch-bar for properly spacing said bobbins, springrippers for engaging said bobbins above their centers, and means for operating said grippers, substantially as described.

7. In a lace-machine, the combination of the bobbins, grippers for engaging the same having bifurcated spring ends, a carrier-bar in which said grippers are pivoted, mechanism for reciprocating said carrier-bar from the main camshaft of the machine, jacquard wires connected to said grippers, spring-controlled sliding plates to which said wires are connected, and jacquard mechanism for operating said plates,substantially as described.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

. CHARLES MARTIN.

Witnesses:

MARK SHAW, O. D. IIEARN, Jr. 

